Hello from a beer brewer and cheesemaker

[ophiuchus_99]

I have been brewing for about 4 years and also started making cheese again.

I have been building a small micro cheese setup and modified some purchased equipment plus I built a heated drain table that utilizes my brew kettle and chugged pump to heat the water jacket.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Greetings from Long Island. I had gotten a mozzarella kit once, it didn't really go that well. My brewing is much better than my cheese making.

 

[ophiuchus_99]

My brewing has me busy as well. I have grown into 15 gallon batches and a keg system. It doesn't take long to have a lot of time and $$$ invested in the hobbies.

 

[jcav]

Welcome, very impressive I must say!

John

 

[Mismost]

Very cool looking. But, I need a long explaination of what is going on there. Heated table? Why? I see it, I just do not follow/understand what you're doing. Cheese making is on my list of "try this" things. Oh...your cheese looks very good too!

 

[AkTom]

Very nice. I'd love to make cheese. My wife is allergic... she loves cheese, so no cheese making for me. Good thing she doesn't like beer. She does drink a bit of wine. Mostly I make wine and mead for me.
Cheers

 

[Singletrack]

Welcome!


Do you ever just sit on the couch in your underwear and eat a whole block of cheese?

 

[ophiuchus_99]

The heated drain table allows the curd temp to be maintained while draining the whey and for cheddaring.

When making cheddar the cheese is pushed to each side of the table and allowed to matt back together. It is then slabbed and stacked to press out the whey while allowing the bacteria to do its thing. Maintaining a constant temperature is important to acomplish this.

Then next step is to mill the slabs, salt, then press.

There are shortcuts to making a decent cheddar but I am trying to create an authentic micro scale milled cheddar.

Thanks for the question.

 

[Kent88]

Do you ever just sit on the couch in your underwear and eat a whole block of cheese?

A whole block would be tough, but every thursday and friday the area convenience stores get curds in and when I get 'em, I'll polish off about 2/3 of a bag in the afternoon.

Glad there is a cheesemaker around here. I have a pro cheesemaker in the family and I've been encouraging her to make some at home once in a while. Hasn't been going that well, though.

 

[ophiuchus_99]

I will be trying out the new drain table for the first time tomorrow so I've been up all night making a couple more parts for it.